Etrian Odyssey IV’s Casual Mode Kills Game Over Screens

Yeah, Etrian Odyssey games are tough especially if you didn’t play Wizardry when you were a kid. (Do kids these days even know what Wizardy is?) Etrain Odyssey IV is a lot more forgiving since it starts players off with Ariadne’s Thread, an item that lets you warp back to town when you’re in a dungeon. This item won’t be consumed, so you can basically teleport to a safe zone at anytime.

But, you’ll still die at least once and when this happens the game won’t go back to the load game screen. Similar to Dragon Quest you’ll be whisked back to town, presumably carried by a friendly adventurer, and you can continue your game when your party members regain consciousness.

Is this series really THAT brutal?! I will definitely play it on casual mode to ease me in; I wouldn’t want to be too frustrated from a crash-course-hitting-the-ground-running experience as my first time. As long as the game comes over, of course. :D

cj_iwakura

It’s harder than Strange Journey.

So, yeah. The EO games are brutal.

Shane Guidaboni

I honestly never found them to be that hard expect post game stuff. If you’re a good planner, then you’ll do fine.

Exkaiser

Luckily, they mentioned they cranked up the difficulty on Normal mode because of the addition of Casual mode. If it’s true, it’ll be nice.

Etrian Odyssey III was a great game, but it was a lot more forgiving than the first two games.

cj_iwakura

They’re not THAT hard, no, but they’re still pretty brutal. If you go into battles casual-like, you will die, and often. And you can’t save in the labyrinth, either. Even The Dark Spire lets you do that.

Shane Guidaboni

Dark Spire was difficult, but it had more emphasis on puzzle solving compared to EO. EO is a lot more occupied with keeping your party updated. They keep getting there with each new game, but I want there to be more interesting things happening in the dungeon. Sometimes I feel like it’s so boring walking around with not much to find.

http://s932.photobucket.com/ usagi_san

I still haven’t played that yet. I need to pick up Strange Journeys.

NorthernPatches

I won’t lie. It is a difficult series. Small mistakes easily snowball the longer you go along and there’s no such thing as being over-prepared. If you think you’re over-prepared, you aren’t.

http://s932.photobucket.com/ usagi_san

Still sounds very exciting, makes me want the game even more now.

http://www.mrtiredmedia.com/ NickyD

Sorry, I’m kinda dumb. Is this a feature reserved solely for Casual Mode? I’d really prefer not having this function as a EO veteran :P

doubletaco

According to the video, the Warp Wires are consumed in Normal mode and are permanent items in Casual mode. Dunno if you start with one regardless of difficulty, but I’d imagine not.

Too bad it’s going to have to die in one turn so I can get its conditional drop.

Jungo

I’m thankful for this, honestly. I like how it is normally in theory, but I’ve lost many hours to accidental deaths or forgetting Warp Wires. I’m probably going to be one of those guys that was on the lower end of skill for the old difficulty and will have to/want to drop to Casual so I don’t lose horribly.

FitzpatrickPhillips

I loves me some super hard difficulty but to be honest, I’m gonna casual-it-up when this comes out. Games like this and Devil Survivor always get me.

Had to cheat through those =X

Suicunesol

Is EO really so hard that something like that is necessary? ~_~ Usually people complain about a casual mode, but I’m not seeing any of that here. o_o

I don’t want it to be so easy that I’ll never get a game over screen, but not so hard as to be unfair. :O

http://ggftw.com/forum/ Monkey_T

It can be pretty annoying, difficult, and annoyingly difficult at times, yes.

Suicunesol

Sounds awesome. :O What about the plot? Does EO usually revolve around a plot, or is it more about mazing through a labyrinth with a light story?

cj_iwakura

They all have stories, yes. IMO, the first game had the best one, since it has some major plot twists at the end.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

True. I did not see that coming…

http://ggftw.com/forum/ Monkey_T

It’s pretty light on story. You spend most of your time mapping out mazes and stuff in a dungeon-crawling fashion.

Exkaiser

They have a very light background plot, but the main draw is the labyrinth.

The stories come to the forefront a bit in the last act.

http://chronotwist.deviantart.com/ JustThisOne

I don’t want to be forgiven! I want to be unforgiving! >:D

In all honesty though, I think it’s a welcome addition. EO isn’t that hard, but I hate to lose hours of grinding because of some silly mistake I’ve made. “Whoops, no warp wire.” “Whoops, didn’t max out my limit gauge before this FOE.” >:(

Exkaiser

Psh, if an FOE is kicking your ass hard enough that you need a Limit to beat it, you’re probably going to get a limit in the battle itself. That’s just kind of how the system rolls.

Normal mode will continue to feature the consumable Ariadne Thread, so make sure you pick one up every time you head home! You have to stop at the store to sell all your monster bits, so it’s not too hard to get in the habit of always buying one.

Sperium3000

I hope that when you’re whisked back to town all characters are at 1 hp, or else you might as well give me a slap on the wrist and call it a day. Also, on one hand I think removing Warp Wires kill a little of the survival aspect of the game, but at the same time that’s like thousands of gold you spare on a normal playthrough.

Wafflenaut

Guys, relax, I’m pretty sure this is just for the Casual game mode, which, if you bought Etrian Odyssey on purpose, you won’t be playing on. Rest assured our soul-crushingly difficult Normal mode will be well intact and ready to hand ourselves our collective asses come early Spring of next year or whenever Atlus inevitably decides to localize it.

Hraesvelgr

It’s pretty much the same as the people that complain about casual mode in the two most recent Fire Emblem games, even though it’s entirely optional. Some people will complain just to complain.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

Carried back to town by a friendly FOE.

Blesmi

FOE: “Get this trash off my lawn” as it hurls your party’s corpses’ back to town.

http://www.santashi.com/ Santashi

I think I’ll stick to my ‘Now where’s my thread? … Wait-no-what-? I know I bought one before I left! I mean, I think… Oh… Oh dear. Er, hello there Mr. FOE. Ahhahaha…’ approach if the game gets an EU release. :D

http://profile.yahoo.com/GFQYYWFUR2SBFLKIITVECS5NAI Erik

>Do kids these days even know what Wizardy is?And the answer is….a big NO! Unfortunate, really, considering it was the forefather to RPGs

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

If it were easily accessible I wonder how much kids would get a good grasp of it.
I remember playing Ultima IV on the NES before I knew how to read :o

Insigma

That’s it? All you get is a perma Warp Wire and no Game Over screen? Well battles are still gonna be brutally hard nonetheless.

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